phillips



T. S. PHILLIPS,

v ARTIPIGIAL TOOTH. No. 325,626. Patented Sept. 1, 1885.

(No Model.)

Witnesses A Inve nor fi i n. Perms, Pholvhlhogmphar. Waahinglon. a. a

UNITED STATES PATENT FFIC a.

THOMAS S. PHILLIPS, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOWILLIAM F. STRASMER, OF SAME PLACE.

ARTIFICIAL TOOTH.

PJPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 325,626,'datedSeptember 1, 1885.

Application filed June 20, 1885. (No model.)

T all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS S. PHILLIPS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of lVIanufacturingArtifinial leeth, of which the following is a specification.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents two artificial teeth,one with afill: ing, O, and the other with a cavity. O. Figs. 2 and 3represent cross-sections of F and G, and Fig. i represents the tooth Fwhen coated by the process herein described and united 1 with others andready for market.

My invention relates to dentistry, and is an improvement in the art ofmanufacturing artificial teeth.

At present the only method known to manu- 2o facturers of artificialteeth for representing or imitating the gold filling in a natural toothis to form a similar cavity in the artificial tooth and then fill thatcavity with gold precisely as the natural tooth was filled, and the goldused 2 5 and time employed is about the same as that required in fillingthe natural teeth.

Another consideration is that the artificial tooth when filled isfrequently so weakened by reason of the cavity formed therein that it 0will break when used and thereby ruin a whole set.

Now, to save the time and labor employed and the gold used in filling atooth, and to ob viate the necessity of weakening a tooth by forming acavity therein, is the object of my 3 5 invention.

To accomplish these results, that portion of the surface ofa tooth whichit is desired should appear as having been filled with gold is coated orcovered with a coating or layer of 40 the prepared gold now so common inthe manufacture of porcelain and china ware. The tooth after being thuscoated is baked or fired in a manner similar to the baking or firing ofthe above-mentioned ware. In this manner the gold becomes incorporatedwith or adheres to the enamel of the tooth, so as to form aperfectimitation of and substitute for the gold filling now so common, and thetrouble of forming a cavity or of filling it after it is formed issaved; besides, portions of a tooth which are too frail to be in factfilled may by this process be represented as filled and the strength ofthe tooth preserved.

What I claim, therefore, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The method herein shown and described for representing and imitating thegold filling in a natural human tooth, which consists in coating aportion of the surface of an artificial to human tooth with liquidprepared gold, and then baking or firing the tooth, all as and for thepurpose set forth.

THOMAS S. PHILLIPS.

Witnesses:

J OHN FALKNER, J r., S. J. DOUGLASS.

